Poetry P's & Q's
This four-line stanza should remind you of a coin.
What is a quatrain?
Evie Shockley's criss-cross poem brings these two sounds together that often form the abbreviation for a literature course like this one.
What is Af-Am?
Two Lulas make up the matrilineal characters in Toni Morrison's "Sweetness," a chapter from this 90s novel.
What is God Help the Child?
Lucinda and Monica are two sides of the same coin, which makes sense when their disagreement over this organization is considered.
What is Jack & Jill?
This long-time Jackson State University professor wrote the famous poem "For My People."
Who is Margaret Walker?
This poetic form is a praise poem whose name sounds like someone thirsty's drink going down.
What is a ghazal?
These two poets had similar offspring in mind when writing their poems, but one want much for him and the other much of him for *them.*
Who are Glenis Redmond and Lucille Clifton?
Thompson-Spires is the 2018 author of a collection of short stories about Black characters, but she took her inspo from this 19th century M.D. and homie of Freddie D.
Who is James McCune Smith?
Future finds herself in the TSA line with some very unusual creatures because the LaGuardia in her world offers two kinds of travel: domestic and this.
What is interplanetary?
This poet, essayist, and novelist went in search of ancestor Zora Neale Hurston's life and legacy--beginning with her unmarked grave.
Who is Alice Walker?
Sometimes you need to repeat yourself again and again to get your point across. When you do it to start, it's known as this.
What is anaphora?
These two poets had lots to say about a certain womanly dip--one most literally and the other with a skip.
Who are Lucille Clifton and Patricia Smith?
In the case of Future's baby, ______________, you ARE the father!
Who is Citizen?
Sweetness is a complicated figure and a textbook representation of this repeated trope in Morrison's writing.
What is bad mother?
Born Gloria Jean Watkins in Kentucky, she offered a definition of "queer" that extends beyond attraction and partnership to one being at odds with everything around them.
Who is bell hooks?
Some say writing poetry is hard. Maybe they're hung up on this shapely poetic form.
What is concrete?
Ariana Benson managed a three-peat in her "Still Life with Bouquet" poem by engaging each of these forms--one of which she invents!
What are the Golden Shovel, Golden Spade, and ekphrastic?
This nuptially-named character's mother one of two, which makes Lula Mae grandmother to her.
Who is Bride?
This title is quite ironic given that no niceties are exchanged in the text, but the romance language translation gives it a gentle air.
What is "Belle Lettres"?
This collection of art and narrative tells the long story of African American people and was edited by a literary icon during her days at Random House Publishing.
What is The Black Book?
Not to be confused with its prefix cousin, this preamble precedes a poem.
What is an epigraph?
This award-winning poet leads one of the nation's largest humanities foundations.
Who is Elizabeth Alexander?
This major civil conflict from the Nigerian past serves as the backdrop for Nnedi Okorafor's Afrofuturist comic world.
What is the Biafran War?
A parallel practice is done by Sweetness's distant daughter and husband. They give something that can buy in place of face time.
What is money?
Unlike fiction and nonfiction, poetry is often open to individual interpretation. The opposite of what we call the goals for a class, it is this.